The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken an initiative to settle pending tax related cases faster through alternative dispute resolution (ADR) by creating awareness among taxpayers, different business bodies and others concerned in an effort to boost revenue collection.
The decision was taken at a meeting of NBR yesterday, with its Chairman Nojibur Rahman in the chair.
The move comes in the wake of ongoing political unrest that has put NBR in difficult situation to collect a large amount of stuck-up revenue.
There are hundreds of court cases, involving some Tk28,000 crore income tax, customs duty and value added tax.
The meeting also decided to arrange workshops, seminars and views exchange meetings, aiming at resolving cases related to income tax, costumes duty and VAT under ADR. The revenue watchdog will also strengthen campaign activities to encourage taxpayers for quick disposal of cases amicably.
In an internal analysis, the NBR has found its VAT wing is overwhelmed with the highest volume of stuck-up revenue with the pending 2,566 cases, involving Tk13,534 crore revenue.
Customs wing has some 17,470 cases with Tk4,835 crore stuck-up duty. Some Tk7,413 crore income tax remained stuck-up with 2,711 court cases filed by the taxpayers.
Earlier, fearing a significant downtrend in revenue collection due to the ongoing political disturbance, National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to expedite the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process for fetching revenue from the revenue-related cases pending in various courts.
The NBR made the decision as the BNP-led 20-party alliance has been enforcing an indefinite blockade since January 6 with hartals during various periods that caused a huge loss for the businesses across the country.